Planet of Lana is a cinematic sci-fi puzzle journey recreation coming to Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox One, and Xbox Sport Cross in 2023. We just lately had an opportunity to play the sport and converse with its co-director and scriptwriter.
Developed by Wishfully, Planet of Lana is slated to affix the Xbox Sport Cross lineup in 2023 when it launches on Xbox Collection X|S and Xbox One. We just lately went hands-on with the sport and spoke with Wishfully’s co-director and scriptwriter, Klas Eriksson, concerning the vibrant journey that includes Lana, an 11-year-old woman and her animal companion Mui.
Planet of Lana gameplay trailer
When first coming throughout Planet of Lana, the sport’s key artwork is extraordinarily good at catching your consideration. It depicts Lana and Mui wanting up at a robotic on a rock, however it will seem to be it does extra than simply seize the eye of some; as a substitute capturing the creativeness. “Just about all the pieces that got here out of the sport, together with the script I wrote, form of comes from the important thing artwork,” Ericksson stated. “It has been the guiding star from the start.”
“Curiosity was positively a robust emotion that I felt; it simply appears to be like like your childhood. When you concentrate on being out in a area while you had been a child your self, simply out working and having enjoyable enjoying with the wind in your hair.”
The important thing and idea artwork had been created by Planet of Lana’s artistic director and lead recreation designer, Adam Stjarnljus, who started crafting the works a yr earlier than Wishfully was based in 2018. Planet of Lana would be the studio’s debut title, and all of it started with that idea artwork. Eriksson described it as a coming-of-age story, the place Lana firstly is clearly depending on her older sister, however after she is taken by the robots and everybody Lana is aware of is taken away, she’s left to determine all the pieces out for herself — with the assistance of Mui, after all.
Planet of Lana is a sci-fi cinematic journey recreation that options side-scrolling gameplay and puzzles with out fight. After a military of robots invades Lana’s residence world of Novo and kidnaps her sister within the ensuing chaos, Lana and her newfound companion Mui set out on an journey to rescue her. Our time with the sport through the hands-on session started after the occasion, through the recreation’s second Act when Lana and Mui are simply starting the thrilling, but treacherous, mission.
Our time started with Lana mendacity unconscious on the ground of a woodland clearing with a small black cat-like creature, Mui, inquisitively nudging her till she awakes. With the mild imagination-inducing soundtrack — which consists by The Final Guardian composer, Takeshi Furukawa — and the watercolour artwork fashion, we had been instantly intrigued by this one scene; a sense that we might carry by way of the demo with us. As soon as Lana is awake, the pair start speaking to at least one one other in an alien language as they take pleasure in assembly one another for the primary time. “We have written this language, a made-up language, that the inhabitants of this planet converse,” Eriksson stated. “When you have an ear for language you will in all probability choose some stuff up, however there will not be any subtitles or something, so you will not perceive it verbatim.”
Initially, Planet of Lana wasn’t going to characteristic any type of dialogue, and the one type of communication between the pair was supposed to be expressed by way of physique language, with the storytelling portion of the sport being instructed by way of the environments. The staff at Wishfully felt like Lana and Mui wanted one other layer of emotional expression in order that the story could possibly be conveyed in a easy method. “Numerous video games form of reverse that previous adage of ‘present do not inform’ in order that it then turns into ‘inform do not present,” Eriksson stated. “As a result of we’re all from a movie background, we actually needed to make it possible for we use quite simple means to inform a giant, complicated story.”
In the course of the time of discussing the sport’s language we had crossed massive grass-covered landscapes, jumped over crags and cliffs, and located ourselves at a really massive gorge that neither of the pair might cross. This was the primary puzzle of the sport and our first alternative to make use of Mui by way of instructions. Mui reacts to instructions like keep and heel, in addition to others for steering her to a location, biting by way of one thing, and climbing by way of small openings. On this on the spot, we required Mui to sit down on a black patch of reed-style vegetation to increase a branching vine so Lana might bounce throughout to the opposite facet after which do the identical for Mui. “She’s like essentially the most obedient little dog-creature you have ever identified,” Eriksson stated. “Numerous the gameplay is about determining tips on how to use Mui and Lana collectively and individually to progress by way of the sport.” Whereas there is no fight in Planet of Lana, enemies are one other type of puzzle that requires you to work out tips on how to bypass them with out being caught.
Progressing by way of the sport will give you a myriad of obstacles and enemy varieties to outsmart, and it wasn’t lengthy till we got here throughout one for ourselves. The creature is known as a Stone Crab, which, not like a standard crab, is roofed in laborious stone and towers above Lana. As such, this was one other type of puzzle, and we wanted to make use of its massive dimension to create a platform for us so we might traverse a big hole. Whereas it did not look after Lana, it was very fascinated by consuming Mui, so we commanded Mui to cover in a gap on the different finish of the big opening to entice it over, making a stable platform for us to proceed our journey earlier than calling Mui again.
“We needed a bit extra of a three-act construction — a standard form of hero’s journey strategy to the storytelling.”
Whereas the demo we had been enjoying occurred very early on within the story, we had been instructed that the puzzles will develop in complexity as we progress by way of the sport. Lana and Mui’s journey will take them out of the forest and into varied biomes, comparable to a desert, swampland, and even a wrecked spaceship underground. As a lot because the puzzles and reversal mechanics are on the forefront of Plant of Lana’s gameplay, the sport’s story takes place throughout a number of layers. “The foreground is actually the connection between Lana and Mui, and the way that develops over time, after which the subsequent layer is Lana attempting to avoid wasting her sister and determining who these robots are,” Eriksson stated. “However then there’s additionally particulars hidden within the background that inform a really wealthy backstory about how the people ended up on this planet, the place they’re from, what’s up with the robots, why they’re there. Though it is instructed by way of quite simple means, it is fairly a layered complicated story.”
Planet of Lana will take round six hours to finish, and if our comparatively brief time with the sport has proven us something, it is that we are able to anticipate a heartwarming journey as Lana and Mui journey throughout the mysterious world. “We actually felt like that is a little bit of a candy spot for us as a result of the story requires a bit little bit of a canvas to play out,” Eriksson stated. “Actually constructing that relationship between Lana and Mui and feeling that connection is tremendous necessary to us.” Whereas we did not get an opportunity to see an excessive amount of of the pair’s rising bond, the demo appeared to indicate a rising connection nonetheless, which we look ahead to watching flourish when the sport launches subsequent yr.
You can play Planet of Lana your self in spring 2023 when the sport launches on Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox One, and Xbox Sport Cross. We’re positively excited to expertise the sport in its entirety, particularly after enjoying the sport ourselves, however we might like to know what you assume. Drop a remark under to tell us what you consider this superior recreation!
